Apparatus for the manufacture of synthetic thread



H. A. KULJIAN Feb. 16, 1954 APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SYNTHETIC THRE 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 21, 1951 l, I INVI EIEITOR flir/ A Kid/[0V7 H. A. KULJIAN 2,669,346

SYNTHETIC THREAD Feb. 16, 1954 APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 21, 1951 ATTORNEY Feb. 16, 1954 H. A. KULJIAN 2,669,346

APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SYNTHETIC THREAD Filed May 21 1951 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 INYENTOR BY ATTORNEY H. A. KULJIAN Feb. 16, 1954 APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SYNTHETIC THRE 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed May 21, 1951 IITITOR Z6277 INVE ATTORNEY Patented Feb. 16, 1954 APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE F SYNTHETIC. THREAD;

Harry'A. Kuljian, Merion, Pa. Application May 21; 1951, Serial No. 227,401

1 Claim.

This invention relates manufacturing disclosed in my prior Patents No. 2,504,703 of April 18,. 1950,. entitled Thread Advancing Reel,

and No; 2,495,936 of January 31,. 1950,. entitled? 1y coagulated, thread must be wound around godet wheels and then around the receiving end of a thread advancing reel where the regenera-- tion of the thread is completed. Because the thread is produced at an extremely rapid rate (of the order of about 140 meters. per minute) it is difiicult, if not impossible for the average op,- erator to lace the leading end of the thread about the godet wheels intermediate the thread advancing reel and the spinnerette as quickly as the thread is produced and this results in a slack which makes it impossible properly to lace the thread onto the reel itself or properly to process the thread upon the reel.

It istherefore one object of the inventionto produce a lacing device whereby the freshly formed thread is quickly and easily laced onto the thread advancing reel and onto the godet wheels, regardless of the speed at which the thread is produced and without need of any special skill on the part of the operator.

Also, in the type of apparatus referred to, I have found it advantageous to the characteristics of the finished product to subject the thread to a certain amount of stretching and to pass it through, a water bath immediately after the new- 1y formed thread has emerged from the coagulating bath and. before any considerable. regen eration of the thread has taken place.

It is therefore another object of the invention to produce improved means for simultaneously washing and stretching the newly formed thread before it reaches the thread advancing reel.

These and other objects are attained by my invention as set forth in the following specification and as shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevational view or a synthetic thread manufacturing apparatus embodying my invention, only so much of the apparatus proper being shown as is necessary for understanding of the invention.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic end elevational view looking in the direction of line 2-2 in Fig. 1, certain parts being omitted.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic, enlarged, end elevational view looking in the direction of line 3-8 on Fig. 1.

to a synthetic thread at-us: of the general type Fig. 3A is a fragmentary and diagrammatie plan viewlooking in. the direction of line. 3A-3A on Fig. 3.

Fig; 4 is an enlarged view, partly in section and partly in elevation, showing details of construction of the lacing device which is shown in Fig. 4:111. outline only.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged. sectional view showing details of construction of the parts enclosed in. the broken line circle! in Fig. 4.

Fig. 8 is a top plan viewof' Fig. 4.

Fig. 7 is similar to Fig. 3 but showing anotherembodiment of the washing and stretching. mechanism shown in Fig. 3;

Fig. 3 is a view, partly in section and partly in elevation, looking in the direction of line 8-8 on 7, the stretching mechanism only being shown.

A thread advancing reel of the type to which my invention is applied includes a number of elongated rolls Iii, H, l2, l3, l4, i5, i6 and I1 which are arranged in a circle about a horizontal center post as clearly shown in the drawings. The opposite ends of the rolls are iournalled in bearings 20 in inner and outer end plates 22. and 2 4. The rolls ill to I l are rotated about their axes by means of a motor M which drives gears carried by the shafts of the rolls. The axes of the rolls are skewed so that, a thread 25 wound about the receiving, or left hand end of the reel, as viewed in Fig. 1, will move, in the form. of a helix 26 which cireumscribes the reel, toward the'discharge, or right hand end of the reel. In order to complete regeneration of the thread and to give the thread the desired finish, various treating liquids are applied to the thread, from nozzles N, as it passes over roll Ill. The reel is supported in cantilever manner so as to leave its discharge end unobstructed.

The reel further includes a lacing ring 28 which rotates about the axis of center post I8 whenever rolls lit-ll are rotated about their axes. The function of this lacing ring will be hereinafter explained. The parts thus far described form no part of the present invention and their structure has therefore not been shown nor described in detail.

The thread is produced by extruding an appropriate viscose solution, through a spinnerette 39, into an appropriate coagulating hath 32. As above stated, the thread is produced at a very rapid rate so that, by the time the leading end of the thread is wound about the godets between the bath 32 and the reel, there will be a large amount of slack which forms a more or less tangled bunch. To slow the production of the thread enough to enable the operator to lace the thread without the formation of slack is not practicable, and the same is true if it is attempted to increase the speed of the reel enough to take up the slack. In order to overcome this objection I provide a receptacle 34 adapted to receive the thread and I provide means for forcing the thread, as fast as it is produced, into the receptacle. By this arrangement, the portion of the thread between the spinnerette 30 and the receptacle 34 will always be taut and can therefore be easily and properly wound about the godet.

, In order to wash and stretch the newly formed thread, before its regeneration has progressed too far, I provide a first roll 40, which co-acts with a godet 42, and a second roll 44 which coacts with a second godet 43, and between the rolls 40 and 44 I provide a trough 48 which i supplied with water, or other liquid, from pipe 49. The rolls 40 and 44 are mounted for free rotation and their axes are skewed relative to the axes of the driven godets 42 and 46 so that roll 40 and godet 42 act as another thread advancing device and roll 44 and godet 46 act as another thread advancing device. In order to stretch the thread as it moves between roll 43 and roll 44, godet 45 is driven faster than godet 42. In practice, godet 46 may be rotated as much as 70% faster than godet 42. As will be seen from Fig. 1, the thread is passed a number of times over rolls 40 and 44 and their respective godets 42 and 46 so as to produce enough grip or snag to insure stretching of the thread. In other Words, if the thread is passed only once around it willtend to slip rather than stretch when godet 4B is rotated faster than godet 42.

In Figs. 7 and 8 I use godet 42a which co-acts with fixed, skewed pin or roll 40a, and godet 46a which co-acts with skewed, fixed pin or roll 44a and I provide V-shaped rolls 50 over which the thread travels from godet 42a, through the bath 48a and towards godet 46a. In the structure of Fig. 7, the provision of fixed rolls 40a and 44a results in the thread being drawn in frictional contact with these rolls and this makes for better and faster integration of the staples forming the thread. In other words, if the thread is placed under a microscope immediately after emerging from the coagulating bath, it will present a fuzzy appearance which is due to the fact that the staples or fibers forming the thread are not fully integrated. The passage of the thread over fixed rolls 40a and 44a forces the projecting portions of the staples into the structure of the thread. This produces a smoother and stronger thread.

The lacing operation is the same for the structure of Fig. 3 and for that of Fig. '7 and is as follows:

The end of the newly formed thread is sucked, or is blown, into receptacle 34 and, by moving the receptacle around godet 42 and roll 40 the taut portion of the thread between the spinnerette and receptacle 34 is easily and quickly laced the desired number of turns. Since roll 40 and godet 42a form a thread advancing device the thread keeps coming off roll 40 and continues to be sucked, or blown, into the receptacle. The receptacle 34 is now moved horizontally so as to lay the thread in trough 48 after which it is passed around roll 4-. and godet 60. When the thread is laced the desired numer of trrns on roll 44, it is cut and the new leading end of the thread is pulled down and brought into contact with lacin ring 28. Since the thread is wet, it adheres to the rotating lacin ring and forms a bundle 52. This bundle is then pushed onto the adjacent end of the reel and it travels toward the discharge end thereof where it is cut off and discarded. The movement of bundle 52 across the reel leaves behind a thread helix 26.

While any receptacle into which the thread is sucked, or blown, will do, I prefer to use the structure shown in Figs. 4 to 6. As best shown in Figs. 4 and 5, a pipe 54 leads from a source of compressed air and is controlled by valve 56. Pipe 54 leads into Venturi fitting 58 provided with radially spaced openings 60. 'A pipe 62 leads from the discharge side of Venturi fitting 58 into receptacle 34 and another pipe 64 leads into the other end of Venturi fitting 53; To use this lacing device, valve 56 is turned on to permit the fiow of compressed air into the Venturi fitting and, through openings 60 and pipe 62 into receptacle 34. This produces reduced pressure in pipe 64, so that, when the end of the freshly coagulated thread is presented to the open end of pipe 64, the thread will be sucked into Venturi fittin 58 and will be blown, through pipe 62 into receptacle 34. The radial arrangement of holes produces a swirling current of air which prevents the wet thread from sticking to them-- terior of Venturi fitting 58 or of pipe 62. The air blown into receptacle 34 escapes through the open top thereof. The thread collected in receptacle 34 is discarded as waste.

What I claim is:

For use with a thread manufacturing apparatus of the type which includes a thread storing and advancing reel adapted to receive a thread, a lacing device for facilitating the winding of the thread about said reel, said device including a conduit, a Venturi fitting connected at one end thereof to one end of said conduit, the one end of said conduit being open and adapted to regodet 46 and ceive the leading end of said thread and the other end of said conduit being open for discharging said thread, there being a plurality of elongated annularly disposed openings formed in the wall of said Venturi fitting and leading from a point outside said Venturi fitting to said conduit, a casing enclosing at least a portion of said Venturi and providing a distributing chamber surrounding the ends of said openings which lead from outside said Venturi fitting, and means for supplying air under pressure to said chamber.

HARRY A. KULJIAN.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Great Britain Oct. 29, 1931 

